Why a strike? The CSA 2010 will cripple trucking.

Yes the truckers have rolled over and let things happen. But there's no way and I mean no way to get every driver or trucking company to strike or speak up. If one speaks up and strikes theres a company that will come in a pick up the slack. Now if you could get every single truck to stop and strike, it will wake up the government in a hurry. But be honest you and I and every other driver out there knows this will never happen. Only way I see it would happen is if every driver was in a union or something to that effect. But there is nothing the truckers can do, small groups have tried protesting in D.C. but what did it accomplish? Not much, only thing it probably did was waste some O/O's fuel and time. An while they were protesting not hauling anything, there was someone else out there hauling the load...... Just my couple cents on that.

 

How many of you have written your congressman, or senator about trucking problems? You all complain about truckers doing nothing, well I have written them, infact I have written regularly about the CSA 2010 rules. Those I agree with and why, those I do not agree with and why Written about the companies, the shippers, the schools, and about teams that I know are the most fatigued drivers out on the road!!! I am doing all I can because I feel someone has to do something, but I am alone because you all just complain on here.

 

i just read some of these post about the problems in this business and all the blame being past around and most of you haven't a clue as to what your talking about but you can sure talk.

the union is for the protection of company employes , thats why they were formed a long time ago and that is why they are still here if they went away the company driver would be making .50 an hour in a week if it took that long if you like the union so much go to work for a union company thats the only way you can do it .

i don't like the union personaly but then again i don't work for a company if i did i would more then likly be union .
the union is not and never has been for independent drivers or owner operators and they never will be, they have never offered help to us when we tried to shut down if fact they refused so be it we did what we could anyway, it didnt work you say well that may be but we #### well tried , what have you done , i mean besides run your mouth about things you havent a clue about.

an owner operator is a independent business man in a small business that belongs to him not the union , thats why he is not union he is nobodys
employee and i doubt you will find any that want to be . and as a matter od fact he dosen't pay due's to any one and he dosen't need the unions permission to work either.

the independent trucker has his own tractor and trailer and authority and he does just what the hell he wants to do, he haules what he wants, he goes where he wants, and he makes what he wants because that is what he wants to do. CAN YOU DO THAT IN THE UNION I THINK NOT.

now iv'e heard a few comments from some that don't believe that these old drivers never had to drive a truck with no ac or sleeper it just was not so well i got a flash for you rookie im one of those old drivers and my first

truck was a one stack mack with a window in the back no ac , no power steering , no air ride and my sleeper was a peice of plywood cut to go across the seats that was my bed , and yes it was real not a fairy tale that most of you billy big riggers tell.

most of you rookies that are out here today and if you've been out here a year yes your still a #### rookie , you haven't a clue driving the interstate is not much different then your school parking lot yeah but your hot stuff your going to change the world well you might change the world but i can promise you one thing you wont change the trucking business you got a ways to go before you can do that and once you've been out here that long i think you will find that you no longer want it to change , if your a man your supposed to be abel to take care of yourself mommy cant follow you around forever. if your a man you don'y need protection you just need to learn how to work and develop a little ambition.

now most of you keep complaining that we won't ever organise well your absoloutly right we wont , why? because we #### well don't want to we are men we take care of our own without help from the #### goverment , or the union, or mommy, we make our own way and if you can't handel that , i hear burger king has a few openings thats may be where you belong .

the trucking business is not for little boys its for adults that no how to take care of themselves not for titty babys that wont to whine all the time .

hell there are a lot of women out here today and there doing a fine job and there good drivers, hell i rarley here one out here that spends most of her time whinning and belly aching why? because she is out here to take care of business and make a living and most of them are doing just that , there making money while most of you are crying about how bad things are .say's a lot for you guys don't it .

and you got to be carefull how you bad mouth these old men that have been out here awhile some still have a good bite and if you evr slip up and get away from your rambo radio and run off at the mouth you could and will get knocked on your but and yeah i no your going to call a cop thats normal what else coud you do except call mommy.

man up and things will automatically get better.


happy trailes to all. southernpride

 

Way to go southernpride! Been wantin to type something like that on this thread since it started. Bout time somebody took on the whiners. Best to you.

 

So it is whining to notice that elogs, exemptions to employment law and the CSA will cost money that could be going in my pocket and favors large companies over O/O? I don't see how that is the goverment helping me. I also don't see how companies getting unionized would hurt me as an O/O since the shippers and consumers would then have to pay the higher rates to cover the cost of having those systems instead of taking it out of the drivers. This would be profit to me and anyone looking to make a future in this business as an independant owner operator.

That man up BS is just some another way of getting people to accept a #### sandwich and say yum. I take care of my own and I don't need some guy who got his telling me how easy I got it.

I don't know about you but there are a hell of a lot better places to work than burger king and simple fact that the industry is gonna end up filled with people who's only two choices are that. (before you knock it 70hrs a week at burger king will get you subsidized healthcare and 30000 take home, owning one will earn a hell of a lot more than a truck) I'll say it again real slow. The skills that make a good driver or O/O are the same ones that will get you a good paying job or business outside of trucking without putting up with the nonsense and risk. This is because the pay is not enough to keep those people in it because costs and regulation ( both are risks) keep rising and the companies are not having to pay at the same rate as the rest of the economy. This is making it so that just running one truck is much more of a gamble than a business. The only reason you guys with multiple trucks and authorities are making it is with the goverment giving you a pass on normal employment laws and not really enforcing the existing laws.

That said , you guys are the ones that will be moving stuff around for the cheapest prices possible and making the country work so my hat is off to ya. I will step out after this truck unless I see rates going up. I still don't see how companies getting unions , and the companies not getting exemptions to pay less than minimum wage hurts me as an O/O regardless of whatever trucker story. All that independance stuff starts to get pretty thin with elogs and CVA 2010 designed by business managers and goverment bureaucrats , and then agreed to by company and insurance executives who do not have to work the job.

 

Hey :
Been on the road a lot.. I have to agree with SP . O/Os have been somewhat reclassed...
O/Os have their own authority and do as he said.
I am an independant contractor. I own my own truck and do not lease it from some rip off company... I make my payments to a bank.
I lease my self and my truck to a company and run under their authority .
That somewhat limits me in some ways.
But , I seem to be making pretty decent money doing it this way. $1.75 out and what ever back. It averages out OK. These are 2500 to 3600 mile outbound runs.
Unions have had their way and their day.. Some of them have been Ok and others have not. There has been an extreme amount of coruption in Unions in the past and I am willing to bet that has not changed a lot.

Not all but many union employees seem to take on a totally different attitude. Some work if and when they feel like it.. If you have not seen this , you have not been around much.. Many companies that were union in the past litteraly worked themselves out of a job, Wages kept going up and production kept going down. This is a fact and not just my opinion. Like I said there are likely still some good ones out there and they may be doing OK...

Making truck drivers Union would open a whole new can of worms that I am also willing to bet would #1 not fix anything, #2 create a mess that would take years to get out of.

When you speak of Union, I understand that there should be a way to have our voices heard .. We thought for years that , that was what the ATA and some others were doing .. Again , we found out that pay offs and big money deals left us in the cold ...

The ATA has nothing to do with your future in mind . We should ask or demand they be done a way with. Who supports them ? As a company driver you may be shocked to find that it is very likely if you drive for a large trucking company , They may well be supporting the ATA..

So to be slinging blame and making statements that support more control over you and I sound sort of backwards to me.
Deregulation is another thing that not one owner Op wanted. Yet it was rammed down our throats and here we are. No driver has ever benafitted from deregulation. And It certainly did not do any of us independants or O/Os any good.

While many of the new breed of lease to own drivers like to think they are now O/Os they have been fooled into that thinking . Most have "Walk away leases "... Real O/Os and independants do not. Pay or else.

A smart look a any contract will disclose all that is in there and there should be no reason for anyone to sign a lease and then start whinning about it.. We all knew rates are down and fuel is high. Been that way for many years ..
If it is money that you are getting ticked about , balme the brokers.
They are what deregulation created and they are the ones keeping all of the fuel surcharge that legally should be going to the truck..
Put that fuel money back into the rates and they really won't look as bad. If an honest broker took his % and left it at that we would all be doing better .
Most freight today is brokered in one way or another. 2 and or 3 parties taking $$$ right of the top.

Look at your lease and you may find that you get X % of the adjusted gross ... That word adjusted is the majic word here . How many times does it get adjusted.
There our friend is where all the money went... They are also all for the new rules ... It does not effect them in any way. Just you and I .

 

like i said in my post YOU HAVEN'T A CLUE and your post proves my point, the #### goverment does nothing for me i don't want nor will i take there help , never did like big brother, i take care of my own and i do just that, but then again i didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. but your doing just fine just keep on doing your thing your going to be big time some day and i like hamburgers.

southernpride

 

I hope this was not to me, I am one of the old guys, and my wife never complains even thought she suffers and I can see the pain, and she runs this business like a pro. She handles money better than anyone I have ever seen. We are L/O but hope to buy this truck, I have waited a long time for my dream truck, I have worked for many a companies, and I work #### hard. I help anyone out here I can, just like we always have since the old days, and I intend to keep doing the same.

 

.....and that's why you and everyone else are still getting paid the same rates that you were back in the 70's!

Your are the perfect example of whats wrong with the trucking industry today,as long as you get a check you don't care about anyone but yourselves! You and everyone else with this mindset are happy with "just getting by" and wot get off your ### and take a stand to better your life and the trucking industry as a whole. You don't mind being used as an extra source of revenue for local,state and federal governments.You don't mind paying over $4.75 per gallon for diesel. You don't mind split speed limits even though it has been proven over and over that the is unsafe for truckers and everyone else on the road.You don't mind being told by the powers that be when you can drive and when you can sleep.You don't mind getting screwed by brokers..shippers..and receivers.You don't mind be fined out the butt for one little mistake on your logs.You don't mind being forced to by a new $25 thousand dollar refer because Cali says your 2 year old refer is not clean enough to run in that state. You don't mind being told that your so out of shape that you cant hold a CDL anymore and you don't mind big brother putting a little black box in your truck or cutting back that $135 thousand dollar Peterbilt so that it will only run 55 to 65 MPH..........as long you YOU get that little pay check. But if you and everyone else with the "me me me attitude" would take a stand all of this could be changed!


I for one am tired of getting screwed every time i set foot in my truck!

And no,it would not take every trucker to strike to make the government listen. Just a few thousand would be more than enough but then again there is not a few thousand drivers that give a #### left in trucking anymore....which is why trucking has gone so far down hill in these last few years!

I would think that after 45 years of seat time you would give a #### and have had enough from big brother but i guess not. Maybe you should take a job a BK,we have enough drivers out here now that dont give a #### so one less would be a good thing!

 

How many letters have you written to your legislatures about these issues? How many rallies have you organized to protest these things? What have YOU done to stop this nonsense? How many strikes or shutdowns have you been a part of? If you did take part in any of these things, did any of them work? Are YOU the only one that gives a ####? Just curious, inquiring minds want to know.

It's all about having the money to get the politicians in your pocket and let's face it nobody in the trucking industry except for the "Mega Carriers" have enough to do that.